This fun New Zealand project to celebrate the International Year of Chemistry is nearing completion with the first stitch-up held last weekend in Lower Hutt. See the photos on the project’s Facebook page. When completed the table will span nearly three and a half metres in width. It will first be displayed at the 2011 New Zealand Institute of Chemistry conference, at Victoria University of Wellington, 27 November – 1 December.

The Academy of the Royal Society of New Zealand is holding its 2011 New Fellows’ Seminar at the Copthorne Hotel, Harbour City, 196-200 Quay Street on Wednesday 2 November 2011. At this seminar, 7 Fellows elected to the Royal Society of New Zealand in November 2010 will each give a 15 minute presentation on their research.

The talks will be pitched at a general audience. All interested people are invited to attend.

1.00 pm – Professor Mick Clout, The University of Auckland, Science for conservation

2. Marie Curie Lecture Series – next lecture 26 October, Napier

There are three more lectures in this year-long Marie Curie lecture series being run by the Royal Society of New Zealand to celebrate the International Year of Chemistry.

The next one is by Professor Alison Downard, Principal Investigator with the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, speaking in Napier on Wednesday 26 October, at 7.30pm in the Exhibition Hall, Napier War Memorial Conference Centre, 48 Marine Parade, Napier.

This lecture entitled “From the Bottom Up” will showcase some of the ways we make electrodes, enzymes and bugs work together for us, how we can use carbon nanotubes to give us new electrical devices and how electrochemistry may play a role in a future world of nanoscale devices.

Take electrochemistry, materials chemistry and surface chemistry, and mix in some nanotechnology and biology and the possibilities are endless. In electrochemistry, electrical energy is used to force oxidation and reduction (redox) reactions to occur at electrodes. The materials and surfaces of electrodes are the starting point and with the techniques of nanotechnology, we can get right down to the surface to see what is happening and maybe even take control.

Have you booked your ticket for this year’s awards evening? The 2011 New Zealand Research Honours event celebrates top New Zealand researchers and includes the presentation of the Rutherford Medal to honour the foremost scientist of 2011.

The Royal Society of New Zealand is proud to host the event comprising a gala banquet and the presentation of awards to eminent New Zealand academics and researchers.

Three new medals will be awarded this year – the Callaghan Medal for science communication, the MacDiarmid Medal for applied science research, and the Humanities Aronui Medal for outstanding work in the Humanities.

A landmark publication by New Zealand’s most distinguished freshwater fish expert, Dr R. M. (Bob) McDowall FRSNZ, was released posthumously this week.

Published by Canterbury University Press in association with the National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research, Ikawai: Freshwater fishes in Māori culture and economy draws together all that has ever been written about the role of freshwater fishes in the lives of early Māori.

Dr McDowall was a widely published author and acknowledged world authority on the taxonomy and biogeography of New Zealand’s freshwater fish. During his 40-year career with the Marine Department, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and NIWA, he wrote 230 papers (in 66 different journals), 14 books and more than 300 reports and popular articles on freshwater fish.

Dr McDowall was a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. He passed away in February 2011.

5. Bayer Primary School Science Fund, applications close 25 October

Primary schools throughout New Zealand now have the opportunity to apply for new science project funding, thanks to an initiative created by Bayer New Zealand and the Royal Society of New Zealand. Known as the Bayer Primary School Science Fund, the aim is to provide financial assistance for ‘environmental science’ and ‘nature of science’ school activities.

Bayer is contributing $120,000 to the fund over three years, which will be administered by the Royal Society of New Zealand. Applications for the 2011 round close 25October.

The topic for this seminar is “Climate Change and the End of Exponential Growth” and the speaker is Pieter Tans from the Earth System Research Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Colorado.

The venue is Lecture Theatre 1, Old Government Buildings, Pipitea Campus, Victoria University.

10. Our Changing World, Thursday 9.00 pm, Radio New Zealand National

Imagine being able to refuel without having to leave your car. Veronika Meduna meets a group of mechatronics students at the University of Canterbury who have designed a robot that will fill up your car for you.

Torrefaction is a form of pyrolysis that turns wood into a more energy dense fuel, and Scion researcher George Escourt tells Alison Ballance about the process and its possible end uses.

University of Auckland scientist Greg Holwell regales Alison Ballance with tales of how female South African praying mantises are proving fatally attractive to males of the New Zealand praying mantis.

A computer game device called Able-X is helping people with arm disabilities do exercises in their own home. Im Able’s Sunil Vather and IRL’s Marcus King explain how the rehabilitation tool was developed, and stroke survivor Leslie Austin demonstrates how much fun it is to use.

This week we also have a web-only feature on the invasive coastal weed spartina. Donald Strong, from the University of California – Davis, gave a keynote address on the global problem of spartina grass at the New Zealand Ecological Society annual conference in Rotorua, and he talks with Alison Ballance about his research into the plant’s ecology.

Shorter science, health and environment features also air during Afternoons with Jim Mora at 3.35 p.m., Monday to Thursday. The programme is repeated at 1.10 a.m. on Sunday mornings.

Researchers, research institutions, publishers and funding bodies routinely face the problem of accurately linking research publications, data and other research activities to the right researcher.… Read more…